GAO report finds 20 out of 42 federal agencies surveyed use facial recognition tech and sheds light on how deeply the tech is integrated into federal agencies
Black Lives Matter protesters, Jan. 6 rioters and regular travelers are among those targeted by agencies using the tech, including the IRS and the Postal Service
Washington PostGerrit De Vynck
Context & Ripple Effects
The report extends a record that had already documented FBI and ICE access to hundreds of millions of photos, placing facial-recognition capability beyond a single federal agency or mission. Its identification of the IRS and Postal Service makes the breadth of deployment more visible.
Subsequent reporting said five agencies' use was absent from the GAO accounting, while later coverage described contracts across agencies including the FBI and ICE. Together, those accounts make the quality and scope of agency inventories as consequential as the topline count.
First-order effects
The GAO's finding publicly identifies facial-recognition use across 20 of the 42 agencies surveyed, bringing the IRS and Postal Service into scrutiny alongside more familiar security and law-enforcement users.
People encountered by the named agencies—including protesters, Jan. 6 suspects, and travelers described in the report—face biometric identification as part of those agencies' operations.
Second-order effects
Clearview AI data alleging uncounted agency usage challenges the GAO tally as a complete map, increasing pressure on agencies and oversight bodies to distinguish disclosed systems from vendor-linked use.
The breadth of use makes federal facial-recognition governance relevant to administrative agencies such as the IRS and Postal Service, not only to FBI and ICE databases.
Third-order effects
If agency counts continue to differ by survey scope and vendor records, federal oversight will increasingly hinge on durable disclosure requirements and auditable inventories rather than one-off usage tallies.
The trend: Facial recognition is becoming a cross-agency government capability, with transparency over systems, vendors, and evidentiary use emerging as the central governance issue.
The FBI, Secret Service, DEA, Customs & Border Protection all use controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI, per this GAO report: https://www.gao.gov/... It lists all the US federal agencies that admit to using facial recognition systems, and what they use: https://tw…
NEW: NASA, the IRS, the Park Service, they're all among 20 federal agencies that use facial recognition. Some of them couldn't even tell a government watchdog which private surveillance tools they used https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
A report shows 11 out of 12 federal agencies don't have a “process in place to track the use of private facial recognition.” If they don't have a process in place, how can they be sure they're not abusing privacy rights? https://www.theverge.com/... via @verge @davegershgorn
Federal agencies have almost no facial recognition oversight, report finds. “The Automated Biometric Identification System holds more than 835 million identities, according to the GAO report.” To learn how biometric collection began, read FIRST PLATOON https://www.theverge.com/..…
GAO report on Facial Recognition Technology is a red flag waving a bigger red flag about the danger of unregulated biometric technologies. #surveillance https://www.gao.gov/...
https://www.gao.gov/... Interesting things just off the top: almost 50% of federal orgs surveyed have a facial recognition system and twice as many used it with the BLM protests as with the capitol riots; what an odd coincidental form of bias that keeps consistently happening. ht…
“Why on earth does the Fish and Wildlife Service need a facial recognition database?” Good question, @FoxCahn. #FacialRecognition @GerritD @washingtonpost @USFWS https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
The Gov Accountability Office released a report today about federal use of facial recognition. Parts of it are based on self-reported survey data from these agencies. But there's a discrepancy when it comes to self-reporting use Clearview AI https://www.gao.gov/...
The new GAO report on federal use of facial recognition is absolutely wild. It details: -almost no accountability of third-party facial rec -use of FR after racial justice protests and Capitol riots -size of federal facial rec databases -so much more https://www.theverge.com/...
ALSO there is another nugget of news: The Secret Service is not going forward with facial recognition in the White House after seeing results from its pilot. Read my whole piece on the report here: https://www.theverge.com/...
A simple review of the money and leadership behind the company should make it clear to anyone working for these agencies how insane of a decision this is. https://twitter.com/...
6 federal agencies used facial recognition technology to “help identify people suspected of violating the law during the civil unrest, riots, or protests” after George Floyd's murder in 2020 3 agencies say they used it on images of the US Capitol attacks: https://www.gao.gov/...